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Grapefruit Moon Gallery

Original Art from the Grand Age of American Illustration

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WPA

This 1940s painting by Alfred Statler features a bustling rush-hour NYC Subway commute envisioned almost as modern dance.

Rush Hour NYC Subway Commute

Artist: Alfred Statler

Filed Under: Fine & Decorative Art
Tagged With: Alfred Statler, new york city, NYC, regionalist, Subway, WPA
Added to Gallery: February 8, 2021

The WPA artist and art deco designer Vladimir Yoffe interrogates the tension between war and peace, past and future in this abstractly inspired gouache artwork dating to the end of World War II.

The Industry Of War

Artist: Vladimir Yoffe

Filed Under: Fine & Decorative Art
Tagged With: industrial age, Russian Artist, Vladimir Yoffe, WPA, WWII
Added to Gallery: August 6, 2018

This electric and inventive progress-through-industry themed gouache painting by Mahlon Blaine is signed and dated 1955. The image dramatizes the industrial era with a shirtless industrial worker forging steel in a machine-age apocalyptic scene that draws its light and intensity and sense of movement from the fire’s sparking glow emitted from within an ominous furnace.

Forging Ahead

Artist: Mahlon Blaine

Filed Under: Illustration & Advertising Art, Sorry, It's Sold
Tagged With: 1950s, american, gay interest, illustration, industrial age, machine age, Mahlon Blaine, WPA
Added to Gallery: July 8, 2018

In this haunting, surreal oil on canvas painting, a train platform rises above assembled automobiles that are parked below a bridge in this transportation minded urban cityscape. At the top, a seemingly living cathedral rises into the night. Captured with oils on canvas in a dark haunting color palette, the dramatic impasto technique is impressive and everything […]

The Night Cathedral

Artist: Alfred Statler

Filed Under: Fine & Decorative Art, Sorry, It's Sold
Tagged With: Alfred Statler, Andy Warhol, modernist, new york city, regionalist, Subway Cars, Urbanism, WPA
Added to Gallery: June 19, 2018

An expressive and lyrical gouache watercolor painting by the Russian-American artist and illustrator Vladimir Yaffe, who worked in New York City during the 1940s and was involved in the burgeoning WPA art movement there through the New Deal Federal Arts Project. His offerings included sculpture and architectural bas relief, and his works were exhibited at […]

Wild Horses

Artist: Vladimir Yoffe

Filed Under: Fine & Decorative Art, Sorry, It's Sold
Tagged With: 1940s, Franz Marc, german expressionism, New Deal Federal Arts Project, russian, Vladimir Yaffe, Wassily Kandinsky, WPA
Added to Gallery: March 25, 2018

The orginal painting takes inspiration from the suffering Burne Hogarth saw growing up in the Depression and is influenced by the WPA regionalist movement.

The Sky Opened Up

Artist: Burne Hogarth

Filed Under: Fine & Decorative Art
Tagged With: Burne Hogarth, regionalist, surreal, Tarzan, World War II, WPA
Added to Gallery: January 24, 2018

Dating to the WPA-era, when many American artists turned their attention to the perils of modernity, urbanization, and the consequences of industrialization, this oil on canvas fine art painting takes a surreal and bleak apocalyptic look at a cityscape (likely New York City) being set upon by a serpent and the wolves that act as his familiars.

City In Ruins

Artist: Unknown American Artist

Filed Under: Fine & Decorative Art
Tagged With: 1930s, american, Cityscape, fantasy, fine art, Golden Age, new york city, outsider art, science fiction, WPA
Added to Gallery: December 20, 2017

Grapefruit Moon Gallery is honored to offer “They Shall Obtain Mercy,” a large and important gouache which served as preparation for one of 11 allegorical murals Savage created for The Elks Veteran Memorial in Chicago’s Lincoln Park neighborhood. The works are still on display at this landmark destination. This deeply moving and symbolic work reflects on the hardships and loss of World War I. This poignant, decorative, important artwork is beautifully matted and framed, and the art has a room-commanding presence.

They Shall Obtain Mercy

Artist: Eugene Savage

Filed Under: Fine & Decorative Art, Sorry, It's Sold
Tagged With: 1920s, allegorical, american, art deco, chicago, classical, Elks, Eugene Savage, muralist, study, The Golden Gallery, WPA, WWI
Added to Gallery: December 14, 2017

An important and technically masterful large format cover oil painting by James Avati, for the 1950 Signet books release of Love Knows No Barriers written by Will Thomas

Love Knows No Barriers

Artist: James Avati

Filed Under: Paperback & Pulp Art, Sorry, It's Sold
Tagged With: God Is For White Folks, James Avati, original illustration art, Paprback book cover, Signet Books, The Golden Gallery, WPA
Added to Gallery: November 10, 2017

A sleepy NYC cityscape scene is captured with oils on canvas-board in a dark color palette in this work by Alfred Statler dating to 1946.

New York Cityscape At Night

Artist: Alfred Statler

Filed Under: Fine & Decorative Art, Sorry, It's Sold
Tagged With: 1940s, Alfred Statler, automobilia, Cityscape, regionalist, Time Magazine, Urban, WPA
Added to Gallery: September 1, 2017

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